The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

Dear Gritty VA: I’m still in the market research phase of starting my Virtual Assistant practice. Recently, another Virtual Assistant and I were discussing yearly salary and work hours with her practice and I was wondering if your experience has been similar to what she’s explained, before you got into training and from what you know of other Virtual Assistants. Here’s what she said:

“I consider myself well established now. Despite this, I work between 15-25 billable hours a week and another 20-40 non-billable hours each week (on marketing, accounting, non-billable matter, etc.).”

My research suggests that a Virtual Assistant who has been in business for five years could anticipate gross earnings of approximately $30,000 per year. However, very specialized Virtual Assistants make far more (in the range of $40,000 to $55,000).” –RD

Before we talk about what Virtual Assistants can expect to make, I want to first make sure we are on the same page about what Virtual Assistants actually are. This is important because your understanding of this will directly impact the profitability of your practice.

You mention the word “specialize.” What this usually indicates is a fundamental lack of understanding about what Virtual Assistance is. Virtual Assistance is already a specialty in and of itself. A Virtual Assistant is someone who specializes in providing ongoing, right-hand, across-the-board style administrative support. That’s an important distinction to understand for a few reasons.

For one thing, it’s a completely different business model from, say, a secretarial service, which is in the business of providing individual, transactional, project-based secretarial services. They’re the Kinko’s, so to speak, of the administrative world. And the reason it’s important to understand the difference in these business models is because the businesses earn money in very different ways, they operate very differently, they have very different labor and administration needs, expenses and operating costs, and they market very differently and attract a completely different kind of clientele.

However, the very most important reason to understand the distinction is that these two business models deliver completely different solutions. Virtual Assistance provides a long-term, more impactful and integral solution that supports the business as a whole and where the focus is the ongoing dynamic and evolving work relationship, whereas a secretarial service provides a quick transaction where the focus and sole purpose is the completion of a single project or task at hand.

Administration is a specialized function already. It’s also work that is inherently ongoing. So going back to what it means to specialize, Virtual Assistants already have a speciality and that is ongoing administrative support for clients they work with in continuous, collaborative relationship.

If someone specializes in some other function, then they are something else completely. For example, if someone specializes in marketing, they are a marketing professional. If they specialize in web design/development, they are a web designer/developer. If they specialize in bookkeeping or accounting, they are a bookkeeper or accountant. Virtual Assistants commonly confuse specializing with the tasks involved. But when we talk about specialization, what that really refers to is not the work or tasks, but rather a target market. Virtual Assistants who specialize (i.e., focus) on a target market have a much easier, quicker time getting started and gaining clients. And that’s because it provides them with greater focus and direction.

Now, that’s not to say that many Virtual Assistants don’t offer additional related services and support. Many often offer creative and technical services in addition to their administrative support. But that doesn’t make those additional services or divisions or specialties in their practice the same things as Virtual Assistance. They are still distinct and very defined things from one another. And this is important to understand because your understanding of these distinctions will affect your ability to charge professionally and earn well.

Is this becoming clearer to you?

If so, you can begin to see that your ability to charge well doesn’t have to do with specializing in any one task. As a Virtual Assistant you already have a specialty. What earning well in this industry has to do with is your view and understanding of your value and the solution you are in business to provide, how you frame and portray yourself as a professional,  how you effectively articulate your value to your desired clientele, and the pricing strategies you employ to focus clients on value and benefits rather than hours.

Earning well also doesn’t have to do with how long a Virtual Assistant has been in business nor with how many billable hours they have at their disposal. (And if after five years a Virtual Assistant is still only earning $30,000 a year, there is something seriously wrong). Virtual Assistants who intimately and more deeply understand the solution they provide and its value to their target market have much more confidence. This understanding, in turn, allows them to have more effective, resonate, compelling conversations with clients and command professional fees. Those fees can earn them well into six figures, but it has to be done smartly and strategically. It will require some shifts in thinking about the pricing you offer clients. People who are still stuck selling hours in their retainers don’t commonly earn into six figures.

I really recommend you get my “Understanding Your Value” guide and workbook. It will walk you through a systematic, step-by-step process of understanding more deeply and clearly the solution and value you provide to clients, identifying a target market and studying it for feasibility, profiling your ideal client and then putting it all together to come up with your own unique value proposition as well as learning about value-billing and focusing clients on value and results rather than hours.